


Rest your head on my shoulder

by TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17578643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot/pseuds/TheSpaceHairAndTheSpaceIdiot
Summary: “Did you get any sleep last night?”Instead of words, as expected, Matt’s question was met with a series of sneezes, each one  coming more forcefully and at accelerating decibels. He turned from the mirror he was fixing his hair in and glanced over his shoulder to where a red-nosed and heavily congested Alex lounged lifelessly in their bed. He turned to face her properly and shot her a sympathetic grimace. “Bless you. You got that much, huh?”





	Rest your head on my shoulder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Songs_and_fairytales](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Songs_and_fairytales/gifts).



> The first thing I’ve finished in months. I hope to get back on the bandwagon for my wips soon. Thanks to everyone for sticking with me this long. And of yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BERNIE!!!

“Did you get any sleep last night?”

Instead of words, as expected, Matt’s question was met with a series of sneezes, each onecoming more forcefully and at increasing decibels. He turned from the mirror he was fixing his hair in and glanced over his shoulder to where a red-nosed and heavily congested Alex lounged lifelessly in their bed. He turned to face her properly and shot her a sympathetic grimace. “Bless you. You got that much, huh?”

Alex waved her newly-soiled tissue at him in thanks as her sneezing was quickly followed up by an uncontrollable coughing fit. While she got herself back under control, Matt abandoned his spot in front of the mirror, his morning primping forgotten in favor of a higher priority. He walked the few steps over to Alex’s side of the bed and sat down on the edge, his hand reaching out to rub her leg soothingly through the covers.

When the coughing had subsided and Alex had flopped back into her pillows with one arm thrown over her face in defeat, Matt reached his other hand toward the fresh water glass he’d placed there only minutes before. He carefully held it out to her. “Take a few sips. It’ll help.”

One green eye cracked open to stare balefully at him for a moment, considering his proposal and whether the benefit would be worth the effort. Decision made, she started the arduous task of trying to sit up. Seeing her struggle, Matt set the glass back down and helped her into an upright position and adjusted one of the pillows behind her to help keep her comfortably reclined. When he grabbed the glass again and handed it to her, she took a few small sips from it, paused briefly, then took a few more. It was almost like watching a kitten take it’s first drink, but made him feel infinitely more helpless.

She reached out to set the glass on the nightstand herself when she’d finished, the simple act obviously exerting quite a lot of her depleted energy reserves. She leaned back against the pillows, head resting against the headboard. “Thank you, darling,” she rasped weakly.

“Anytime, Kingston. Now, back to my question: did you get any sleep at all last night? Cuz I feel like I heard you up all night.”

“I got enough.”

He raised one brow sternly, willing her to come clean.

She sighed. “I drifted in and out most of the night.”

Not quite the truth he imagined to actually be true, but better at least. “You should really try and catch up on some of it. You need your rest, You’ll get better faster if you do. No offense, love, but you look like hell this morning.”

Glaring apparently required no energy because she showed no trouble shooting one at him with enough power to impress the sharpness of a jagged dagger into Matt’s mind. “Such a bloody charmer, you are. And to think, I beat out the throngs of young, beautiful women lining up to throw themselves at you. How very lucky I am.”

“Hey now,” Matt said defensively, throwing his arms up on either side of his head, “whoever said it was an unattractive look? Hell looks incredibly sexy on you. That thing with the chain of sneezes and the hacking up a lung? Is it weird that I found that to be a total turn on?”

Annoyance faded, or perhaps feigned, Alex laughed out loud. She laughed that bright, twinkling laugh he always loved and Matt considered that a massive victory in his favor. Alex’s laugh always made him feel like a little bell was ringing in his chest and with her feeling positively miserable for three days and counting, he hadn't been able to hear much of it at all.

She’d spent the first couple of days trying to power through, running around to auditions and meetings and errands like a woman on fire, citing her superpowers of motherhood as able to get her through any illness without so much as break for excess fluids. Unfortunately, she _had_ been on fire, almost literally, with a temperature reaching 39 degrees. After a much-protested trip to the doctor, she’d woken up the next day a lethargic, achy, dripping mess, her ability to continue powering through finally snatched from her grasp. It took much persuasion on Matt’s part to get her to agree to stay in bed and rest for a few days, as the doctor had ordered. But apparently reminding her of how sickly she looked wasn’t the best way to get her to feel any better about being forced into bed.

“Honest, Alex, if I were to kiss you right now, I simply wouldn’t be able to stop myself from hanging it all, skipping work, and staying home all day just to ravage you senseless. I simply wouldn’t be able to control myself, that’s how drop dead gorgeous you look.”

She gave another laugh, but this time it was a smaller one, just as entertained, but she was no longer in possession of enough energy to laugh properly this time. She opted instead for a fond smile as she lolled her head back against her pillows again. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Always just a bit, I think. But I’m your ridiculous.” He leaned in and kissed her soundly, infusing it with enough passion and tenderness to express everything he felt in his heart but which wasn’t always quite so easily captured by words.

When they broke apart mere moments later, Alex’s over-exerted lungs were protesting even the brief lack of oxygen, but the slightly dazed and loving grin on her face told him she didn’t much mind. “What happened to one kiss leading to a day of ravaging? Because I have to say, as awful as I feel, that sounds quite nice right now.”

He leaned his forehead against hers and groaned mournfully. “Trust me, I’m fighting every urge and instinct in my body right now. But Randy will have my head if I don’t make it to set. And I’m running short on time as it is. I’m gonna have to leave in a couple minutes.

Though a small smile lingered on her lips, Alex huffed at him once he was far enough away to properly see her. “I sort of hate that I’m laid up here in bed, and you, the worst patient in the world when suffering from so much as the _sniffles_ , are running around going to work anddoing whatever you want, not even worried about catching anything.”

“Yes, well, remind me to put in a formal request to have myself flogged as penance later.” He reached in and playfully tugged on a stray curl framing her face and then quickly dodged the fond but equally annoyed swat aimed at his arm. “But really, sweetheart, it’s not my fault I decided to follow health and safety guidelines and get my flu jab and you didn’t. That’s practically begging to get sick.”

“I never get sick!” she said, perhaps a bit more aggressively than intended, if Matt were to guess. Her head flopped forward to rest on his shoulder, the warm weight of it there a warm, soothing sensation that made him leans into the touch and rub his cheek into her hair. “I haven’t come down with anything more than a little, nothing forty-eight hour bug that barely put a hitch in my step in decades. And now I’m laid up with the bloody flu.

“Yes, you are, and you need to promise me you’ll stay laid up. Only get up if you really need to. You’re not operating at anywhere close to full capacity right now. I don’t want you getting dizzy and falling to your death because you feel like stretching your legs.”

“Matt, honestly-”

“Nope, I don’t wanna hear that you’re fine. You’re not. Now look,I’ve supplied you with everything you could possibly need here.” He gestured grandly the overflowing nightstand and the bed tray set up on his side of the bed. “You’ve got water in the glass and a whole pitcher to refill it with. Another glass with juice. I brought some toast and fruit if you feel like some breakfast-“ He saw her about to protest, her missing appetite these last few days having become a formidable foe, “-just try to eat some, all right? If you get hungry later, I left soup in the fridge, but only go for it if you really feel up to it. So just that and trips to the loo. I’ll _know_ if you tried anything else. You’ve got paracetamol and every over the counter medicine you could possibly need just an arm’s reach away. Your phone is charging in its usual spot and your tablet and glasses are just there if you feel like reading. And here’s the remote in case you feel like binging The Great British Bake Off during what I know will be the brief times you aren’t trying to sleep. If there’s anything else you can think of, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

His monologue left him slightly breathless. He probably should have stopped for breath more often than he had, but getting it all out before Alex found anything to distract him with was essential. Like she was one to talk about him being a bad patient.

He shook himself from his rambling thoughts and spotted the misty smile on Alex’s face. He was just about to ask her what the matter was when she shook her head wistfully and replied, “Never.”

It took him a moment before his brain stumbled onto his choice of words that had obviously inspired such a reaction in her, and when it did, his eyes flitted down to the diamond ring on herfinger. The moment when he’d slip another ring in front of it drew ever closer by the day. He met her gaze silently for a few seconds, an unexpected ball of emotion rising in his throat as he stared at the woman before him: weary and achy and moody, a veritable cocoon of viral infestation, and still, he hadn’t been lying to her. She was still, even now, the most gorgeous woman he’d ever laid eyes on. The fact that she wanted to spent the rest of her life with him made him thank his lucky stars and turn into the thoughtful caregiver he’d never quite found himself to be before she’d come along.

He gingerly picked up her left hand from where it lay bunched in her blankets and curled her fingers around his hand, bringing her ringed digit to his lips and kissing the cool metal band. “I’m glad.”

When Matt heard a soft sniffle, he was pretty confident it had nothing to do with the flu. But when she spoke, her voice was focused and serious, no hint of the water prckling in the corner of her eye. “You know, I don’t think I have ever loved you quite as much as I do right now.”

“I’m also glad to hear _that_. Wouldn’t want to be putting all this work in only to have some random night watching telly be the night your love reached its peak.” They both laughed at his stupid joke and he took the break in tension as a sign to stand and start getting ready to go. “I’ve gotta start heading out now or I’ll be late. And they tend to notice that when you’re the lead.”

“Yes, yes, go,” she said confidently, swiping discreetly at the corner of her eye as she encouraged him to leave despite neither of them really wanting him to. “I’ll be fine here. You’ve done literally everything possible to make me comfortable here. You need get going.”

“I won’t be home late, promise. But keep in touch throughout the day, yeah? I wanna know how you’re doing.” He stooped to press one last kiss to the crown of her head. “Feel better, Alex. See you soon.”

She shuffled further down on the bed as she watched him retreat, curling her frame more tightly into the covers. “See you. And Matt? Thank you.”

He’d already started walking to the door, but when he reached it, she stopped and turned to face her again. “No thanks necessary, Kingston. This is exactly what fiancés do for the women they love.” He paused briefly, letting the impact of his words sink in for a beat.Then he rapped twice on the doorframe in farewell and turned to walk out of the bedroom, slinging his bag onto his shoulder. “Take care, ok?”                                                                                                                          


End file.
